


waiting requires patience, and patience requires time.

by eatcops



Series: campfires for a select few [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Mentions of Sex, Nonverbal Communication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 07:24:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16445396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eatcops/pseuds/eatcops
Summary: “Noct. Noct, I need—let me see you. Please.” When Noct pulled back, Prompto’s hands cupped both of his cheeks. He brushed his fingertips over Noct’s beard, over his cheekbones, behind his ears. Noct leaned forward and pressed his forehead against Prompto’s.“That bad, huh?”“Fuck you.” Prompto hugged Noct again and he sighed against him. “Don’t believe anything Iggy tells you. I promise I haven’t totally been wearing your stupid jacket all the time.”Noct hummed and he nuzzled his nose against Prompto’s temple. “For some reason, I have a sneaking suspicion that is a lie.”“Nope. I’m totally telling the truth, buddy. No jackets here.”





	waiting requires patience, and patience requires time.

**Author's Note:**

> this is a prequel to _grief is a marathon, not a sprint._ i didn't expect to write one and i didn't expect for this to be that, but it turned into it pretty quickly when i realised how much of it was connected. wrote this in about 45 minutes. blah.

“You’re such a fuckin’ idiot.”

“Excuse me?”

“You  _ really  _ think that good-for-nothin’ prince is gonna come back? He’s probably off hidin’ somewhere, too scared to—oi, oi,  _ OI!”  _ Prompto shoved the man against the wall, one hand holding his head against the brick and the other summoning his gun. “What the fuck, man?”

“Take it back.” Prompto despised the way his voice wavered, the way his hand trembled against the cold metal of the gun that the said “good-for-nothing prince” had bought for him,  _ just  _ because he liked the design on the barrel.  _ “Take it back.” _

The man struggled a bit, but cried out when Prompto pressed his gun against the small of his back. “Shiva’s fuckin’ tits, dude, I take it ba—”

_ “Prompto!”  _ A too-large hand came down on Prompto’s shoulder to rip him away from the man who was then catching his breath, hand against his chest. “Sorry, man, he’s on a bad trip. You know how people can get.” He slipped the  _ scumbag  _ a couple hundred gil to keep him quiet before turning to Prompto and hissing, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“He was shittalking! Do you expect me to just stand there and let that happen?”

“Yeah! Yeah, I do! Jesus, dude, people have been talking shit for nearly a decade. You need to get a grip.  _ We  _ know he’s coming back. Who gives a damn if some Niffs think he isn’t?”

“I DO!” Prompto’s voice cracked. “I care! How can we trust them to stand behind him if they don’t give a shit? How can we expect—how—it fucking matters, Gladio!”

Both of them froze when Ignis rounded the corner, eyebrows drawn and fists clenched. They unclenched, only to grab the men’s ears and tug them along. “Oi, oi, Iggy, that hurts!”

_ “Good,”  _ Ignis hissed as he shoved them into their small hotel room that they had called home for a week or so. “What the hell were you two thinking? Prompto, getting into a fight with one of the immigrants. Gladio,  _ screaming  _ in the middle of the city. Are you both idiots?”

“Iggs—” Gladio was cut off when Ignis held his hand up. 

“Save it. You’re on errand duty. There’s a list in the bedroom of things I need. I need to speak with Prompto.” 

Gladio’s jaw set, as if he was going to protest, but it relaxed after his and Ignis’s eyes met. Prompto shuffled uncomfortably in his spot as they had one of their weird telepathic conversations. He wished desperately he knew what any of it meant. Though, he supposed, you unlocked that ability when you’ve been in love with someone for over twenty years. Gladio nodded and stepped forward to kiss Ignis’s temple. 

“Sorry, Iggs. Sorry, kid, for getting on your ass like that.” Prompto blinked at him as him and Ignis kissed goodbye, a soft,  _ “Be safe,”  _ whispered between them. He wondered what Ignis could have “told” him that made him break like that. When Gladio left with the quiet click of the door, Ignis turned to Prompto. 

“You can’t just do things like that. We need as many people on our side as we can get.”

“I know, but—”

“How would Noct feel if he saw you pull your gun on someone for talking smack?” Ignis’s eye was as calm as it always was, but Prompto knew it was meant to be a focused gaze. If he could  _ see  _ Prompto, the lecture would probably be ten times worse. 

Prompto’s heart tightened and he clenched his fists. “That’s not fair, and you know it isn’t.”

“Isn’t it?” Ignis crossed his arms, still staring down at Prompto. “He doesn’t need you to defend him like that. Don’t you think Gladio and I get the same way? It pisses me off to no end to hear people doubting him. But you don’t see either of  _ us  _ pulling our weapons on people.” 

“Iggy, it’s d—”

“We don’t love him the way you do.” Prompto’s heart tightened impossibly further and he found it difficult to breathe. “I know. You have nightmares. And it has been painfully obvious since we’ve known you. But this doesn’t mean you should do this. You  _ know  _ it isn’t what he would want. You promised that you would follow him and help him no matter what.” There was a pause. An uncomfortable silence filled with Prompto’s shuffling in an attempt to prevent himself from letting tears spill down his cheeks. “Ruining your own image does the opposite. He wouldn’t want you to be hurting yourself like this.”

Prompto let a pathetic sob and he buried his face in his hands. “I can’t  _ do  _ it!” his voice cracked as he tugged at his hair, his eyes squeezed shut. “I can’t keep going on like this, Ignis! What if he  _ doesn’t  _ come back? I’m—I’m gonna die without ever fucking seeing him again! Those stupid—” He whimpered and went quiet when Ignis’s arms wrapped around him. “Those stupid  _ assholes  _ are getting to me, and I’m  _ scared.”  _

Ignis sighed softly and he rested his cheek on top of Prompto’s head. “I know.” Prompto noted the way his hands were trembling. “We all are. But abandoning your faith is abandoning him. He needs us now more than he ever has.” 

“I miss him, Iggy. His—His jacket, I don’t—” he lets out a sad, wet laugh, “I don’t know how it still smells like him.”

“Probably the absurd amount of cologne he used.” They both laughed, and Prompto felt Ignis’s tears slip down onto his shoulder. The older man sighed shakily and his arms tightened around Prompto. “You can ask him that when he gets back.”

Prompto nodded. “I will.”

* * *

 

“Noct.” The name passed Prompto’s lips quieter than a whisper. He wasn’t sure if he had said it at all. He dug his nails into his palm. It hurt.  _ “Noct,”  _ he repeated. His left knee buckled and his hands started to tremble. His heart pounded painfully against his ribs. 

Noct was covered from head to toe in dirt. His hair was long, he had a beard, and he was…  _ there.  _ He turned from Talcott to look at Prompto. “Prompto.” Prompto gasped quietly. His voice was deeper, not by much, but he sounded… mature. Like a  _ king.  _ Noct stepped forward once, then twice, and then he was full-on running to Prompto. They tackled each other, a mess of arms and messy clothes and ugly facial hair. “Prompto. Prompto, you’re okay.”

“Noct. Noct. Noct, Noct, Noct,  _ Noct,  _ you’re—you—I— _ Noct.”  _ Noct laughed and he nodded into Prompto’s neck. Prompto sniffed and he laughed with him. “Sorry, I—I’m a f—a mess, I—uh—” Noct shook his head and held Prompto closer. Prompto nodded. Maybe that was what Ignis and Gladio did when they stared at each other. Maybe it was similar, or even the same. Did Ignis’s heart pound as hard as Prompto’s was? “Noct. Noct, I need—let me see you. Please.” When Noct pulled back, Prompto’s hands cupped both of his cheeks. He brushed his fingertips over Noct’s beard, over his cheekbones, behind his ears. Noct leaned forward and pressed his forehead against Prompto’s. 

“That bad, huh?”

“Fuck you.” Prompto hugged Noct again and he sighed against him. “Don’t believe anything Iggy tells you. I promise I haven’t totally been wearing your stupid jacket all the time.” 

Noct hummed and he nuzzled his nose against Prompto’s temple. “For some reason, I have a sneaking suspicion that is a lie.”

“Nope. I’m totally telling the truth, buddy. No jackets here.”

“Ten years, and you’re still a bastard, huh?” Noct’s hand came up to comb through Prompto’s hair. “You’re tired,” he whispered. 

“Not tired,” Prompto mumbled back. He gripped Noct’s shirt. “Never tired.” He stayed like that, clinging to Noct, the whole night. On the way to the campsite, him and Noct held each other and Prompto cried even more. It was almost impossible for Noct to talk to anyone else, but no one seemed to mind. Prompto  _ was  _ tired, but that was entirely overridden by the fact that he had Noct. He had his best friend back. They were going to save the world. Maybe, Prompto decided,  _ maybe  _ he would ask Noct to be his own, after everything went down. 

Prompto clung onto Noct while they were at camp, too. He kept his face buried in Noct’s neck, his hands buried in Noct’s shirt. He curled up against him in their tent and was almost asleep when Noct whispered, “Prompto?”

“Yeah?”

Noct sat up and crossed his legs. “C’mere.” Prompto followed with furrowed eyebrows. Noct cupped Prompto’s cheeks and pulled him in for a kiss.  _ Oh.  _ Prompto wrapped his arms around Noct’s neck, carefully pulling him closer. “I love you,” he whispered. “I never told you. And I’m sorry.” He kissed Prompto again, this time with more urgency. “I’m so sorry.”

“I love you, too,” Prompto whispered back. He ran his hands up Noct’s back, feeling out where he knew freckles and beauty marks were splayed across his skin. “Love you so much.  _ Always.”  _ Prompto migrated into Noct’s lap. Neither of them mentioned it. “I missed you. I missed you so much, Noct.”

“We could leave,” Noct said. It was barely a whisper. “We could go, all four of us. Live… live somewhere. We’d figure it out. We always do.” Both of them knew it was bullshit. Noct sighed and he wiped Prompto’s tears away with his thumb. “I love you. I’ll never leave.  _ Never.  _ I promised you that. I won’t. Even if—”

“Don’t.” Noct nodded and he let Prompto kiss him again, mostly tongue and teeth, but everything the both of them needed. Prompto tried to press closer, and ended up pushing Noct onto his back. 

They made love. 

It was rushed and sloppy and they kept laughing and shushing each other, but it was  _ them.  _ It was something only the two of them could have ever done together. No one else they had ever known or would ever come to know had the connection that they did. Noct came first with a soft cry, burying his face in Prompto’s shoulder as his hips stilled. Prompto cried after he came. Noct didn’t laugh. He got them cleaned up quietly, kissing splats of freckles across Prompto’s skin as he did, making sure that Prompto could  _ feel  _ that he loved him. 

He could. 

Prompto knew that Noct loved him when they made love again the day after. 

Prompto knew that Noct loved him when he told him so again as he threw his jacket on the makeshift bedside table. 

Prompto knew that Noct loved him when they kissed, teary-eyed and exhausted, before Noct had to face the bastard that had caused all of their troubles. 

Prompto knew that Noct loved him, even when he didn’t come back.


End file.
